More migrant children than ever are transiting through Latin America and the Caribbean, and they are uniquely vulnerable to the threats of the region’s dangerous migration routes, according to a new report from the United Nations’ lead child-welfare agency.
“More and more children are on the move, of an increasingly young age, often alone and from diverse countries of origin, including from as far away as Africa and Asia,” said Garry Conille, director of UNICEF for Latin America and the Caribbean, in a statement. “When they cross several countries and sometimes the entire region, disease and injury, family separation and abuse may plague their journeys and, even if they make it to their destination, their futures often remain at risk.”
The record number of migrant children coincides with the historic levels of irregular migration the Western hemisphere has experienced in recent years, and that the United States and other countries are struggling to contain as people flee simultaneous social, political, economic and environmental crises in Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other countries in the region.
Children make up about a quarter of all people on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean, higher than the total percent of migrant children at the global level, which is 13 percent, UNICEF said. And most of the children moving through the region are very young: as many as 91 percent were under age 11 along certain “key transit points” examined by the agency.